I'm doing my first life size bear and I didn't have the carcass to take measurements from.
I rehydrated the hide and stretched it out good with the aid of a hand tool.
I took some preliminary measurements and it appeared that I had overstretched the length because with that measurement, my girth was about 10" smaller that what the form call out for that length.
It then "let up" on the lenght stretch a bit and tried to get the hide more proportional. Then it became very obvious that I had overstretched the length.
SO.....this hide appears to be best suited for a 50" form....but I was able to stretch it to the 56" to 58" range. (of course the width suffered)
DOES THIS SOUND RIGHT?
REMEMBER, THIS IS IN THE BEGINNERS SECTION HAHAHA
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Lay your skin out on the floor or work bench, then draw an imaginary line down the center out the skin. From nose to tail. Then use a stretching tool to stretch skin from your imaginary line to the outer edges, go all the way down one side then back down the other. When you come the legs, find there center and stretch them out to their edges. This should get you back to the original measurements. And you would probuly want to choose a slightly smaller mannikin then what your measurements are,(belly circumference, and length) just to keep everything comfortable you don't want to have to fight the skin to get it on.
Hope this helps, and Good Luck
always go by the belly circumference. If the form is too short or too long that is an easy fix. The belly has to fit right so the animal does not look disporportioned after the mounting (long skinny bear vs. thick stout shorter bear). And like Mark said, always go with a slightly smaller form. Remember your hide will shrink up some during the drying process and you do not want the seem to split back open.
Was I correct in saying that I had probably overstretched the lenght by 6 to 8 inches?
Good stretch for a rug but bad for a life-size
Always measure the skins of l\s animals bye first streching it's width cats i stretch as wide as possible. than measure both the length and the width. works out well. Good Luck
YES!, You did it right the last time. A point to remember always is that tanneries charge for bears by the LENGTH. All tanned hides come back to you longer than they actually were. You should be fine.
Hides have a tendency to look long, because theyre hung to dry. Thats why your Ma used to tell you to hang the shirts out on the line by the shoulders without stretching them, so theyd fit again later! Just stretch the width and length back and forth. Then compare some form sizes from a catolog, and see how yours measures up. If you stretch out the hide, and compare the numbers to a form and see youre 6 inches narrow and 8 inches too long, well, you can obviously see that by pulling those 6 inches back into the width, youll knock out some length, and come closer to the known measurements by doing so.